My little students at the school had been asking to celebrate Halloween since I'd first met them, and I love Halloween, so of course, I said, "Maybe. If you're good".Halloween is still catching on in Russia, so the children have often never celebrated it before, yet they all know what it is. They were so excited (and a little scared) when they arrived at my dark, dark classroom in the dark, dark school...
​Topic: Halloween, spooky stuff!

Level: Any

Aim: To learn Halloween vocabulary, to revise parts of the body, to practise some grammar in a fun way and to experience how kids celebrate Halloween in other countries.

Previous Lesson:During the lessons leading up to the big 3-1, we did some tasks relating to Halloween for ESL, some from the book "This Is Britain" using a video which can be found on YouTube.

The lesson before Halloween, their homework was to carve a pumpkin, following the instructions I had given them. I also said they should come to the next lesson in costume. At the end of the previous lesson we had gone around the circle asking what everyone was going to dress up as, just to be sure they understood, and that I was serious. I also dressed up as a witch.

Warm Up:
When the students arrived, I got them to knock on the door. If they asked "Trick or Treat?!" like we'd learnt during the last lesson they got a sweet and could come inside. The room was dark, with spiders' webs and skeletons hanging up, candles and pumpkins for light, and spooky music playing in the background. These few changes to the classroom were obviously very exciting, along with me being a witch, they seemed a little worried about what was to come...

​Prepositions Review:
​Before the students arrived, I'd hidden eight Halloween pictures around the classroom/school and the children had to find them and write on their papers where they were e.g. The witch is under the table. The person/team to come back first with the correct answers got sweets.

Halloween Body Parts Jack's Story:
We sat back down, made the room as dark as possible and I chose my naughtiest student to sit in the chair at the front of the room and be “Jack”. That made him quiet for a change ;)

I elicited from the students his name, if he was a good or a bad man, why he was a bad man and what we should now do to him. I had a fork, a knife and a spoon on the table and various tupperware boxed of food covered in black tights hidden on a chair next to me. They were soon passed around for feeling without looking.

We then began “dissecting Jack”.

First we took out his eyes. I took a spoon and pretended to scoop out my lovely student's eyes and popped them into the pot. Then I passed it around the room (shouting "NO EATING") so the students could feel his 'eyeballs' – two peeled grapes. Of course, the imagination takes over, and you will get lots of squeals as they really feel like eyes.

Then I asked another student to come and 'help' me to ‘cut off Jack’s ears’. The kids really surprised me as they took to the acting really well, and gently pretended to cut off his ears. Then we passed them around the room. His ears – 2 dried apricots.

We continued with different students as helpers with the following body parts (or any others you can think of):Teeth – small pieces of dried macaroni.Brain – a whole cauliflower.Stomach – cooked spaghettiBones – a stick of celery cracked in halfTongue - piece of salamiNose - chili pepperFingers - carrots (or your own fingers using a hole in the bag!)

Once we were finished, we went through what the body parts really were.

'Listening:'I decided to play them a short horror film just for fun. I found Amy’s Torch, which I downloaded from YouTube onto my iPad. It’s 2 minutes long but really makes you jump at the end so best with children aged 10 + at least! Some of them didn't want to watch it, so I didn't force them! Then it was hometime, and they all told me they were too scared to walk home. My job was done :) ​

Ideas for Longer Classes

Halloween Speaking and Listening Game:
Describe a Halloween picture and get the students to draw what you are describing. Then get each student to take a picture and describe it to the class to draw (or their partner). This activity practises speaking and active listening – and the speaker can see instantly if what they’ve said is correct as it will be drawn correctly by everyone else.

Halloween Monster Reading:
Read the texts and guess which Halloween monster fits the description. I cut them up and laminated them for students to swap more easily. This activity was originally downloaded from BogglesWorld but I modified it to cater to lower levels.

Halloween Treasure Hunt:
This takes a lot of work but is fun. Before students arrived I hid these clues around the school. Don't tell students how many cards there are, and explain they have to READ the text, or they'll race around the school grabbing any card without reading the clues *sigh*. I put the clues onto the back of big printed silhouettes. I also tried to trick them, by pinning a clue under my hat, however, nothing fools those evil children.

Halloween Grammar - Present Perfect:
Here are some cards with Halloween related questions for the students to ask each other. I cut them up and laminated them. Our next topic was going to be present perfect, so I thought I'd introduce it with something interesting. Ten-year-old Andrey asked me if I'd written these questions, and if I thought I was normal...

Games - just for fun

The main idea of Halloween is to have fun, so I like to include some games that don't have any real educational value - they're just fun.

The Mummy Race:Divide class into teams. One person will be the mummy. The rest of the team must bandage him up quicker than the other teams. The winner is the best looking and fastest mummy. GO!

The Chocolate Game:
Put two bars of chocolate onto a plate with a knife and fork either side. Put a hat, scarf and gloves on the chair.
Students must continuously roll the dice, and then pass it to the next person around the circle. Whoever rolls a six can go to the chair, put the clothes on, and eat as much chocolate as they like using the knife and fork before somebody else rolls a six. When a six is rolled, the current chocolate eater must return to the circle and allow the new eater to try. This continues until all of the chocolate has gone.

The children in my LOVED Halloween (even though they thought I was a little crazy, who isn't?) and asked me to 'do Halloween' every week we had class for the rest of the year. "Nope, Halloween is only on the 31st October, unfortunately, my dear children..."